No power in my legs.

Absolutely. Just happens. Sometimes from diet, sometimes from fatigue, sometimes from just being off the bike for a while. It will pass.

Don't live and die by each ride. Look at the steady progress that you are making and keep that as your goal. It really helps when you need to shake an off day. Then on the good days it's just that much more confirmation that you are indeed progressing.

Just a thought. Keep after it! 😉

Im no expert but your gonna have some bad days on the way to building strength. Are you resting enough? I find that when I strength train it always helps to be fresh from a days rest. Try it and let me know.

mtbnewbie said:

First off I am fairly new to cycling, just started this summer, mainly to improve my overall health and fitness. I ride a MTB on the roads mainly.

Haven't been on the bike for nearly a week but I went for a ride this morning. I went for an hour and manged a 24km/h average. That's about where my average has settled in for the last month or so.

Anyway today I had a rather odd sensation in the legs (or rather a lack of), when I would try to push a little harder all I got was nothing, no lactate burn but no extra speed either. The legs just felt kinda dead, not numb but just couldn't get them to give anymore. When I got to small hills I would get a bit of a burn but not much. Just found it odd, at the start of the summer when I would push harder I could feel a burn develop in the legs. Today it was like pressing the gas pedal down on a car and getting no response.

Legs felt a bit wobbly when I got off the bike too.

Anyboby else ever experience this? 😕

rule62 said:

Absolutely. Just happens. Sometimes from diet, sometimes from fatigue, sometimes from just being off the bike for a while. It will pass.

Don't live and die by each ride. Look at the steady progress that you are making and keep that as your goal. It really helps when you need to shake an off day. Then on the good days it's just that much more confirmation that you are indeed progressing.

Just a thought. Keep after it! 😉

Thanks for the advice, I am keeping an eye on the bigger goal. Despite having felt less powerful I actually had a better average than my previous ride. I figured it was probably just due to general fatigue and having been of the bike for awhile. 🙄

mtbnewbie said:

...no lactate burn but no extra speed either.

I'm not sure that lactate actually burns anyway.

When this happens, just slow down considerably for at least 15 minutes. And then gradually try to gain your speed back. If it comes back, then the explanation could be acidosis.

There is also a well known phenomenon called bonking. This describes a very unpleasant state where your sugar level gets too low. But that is usually a sign that you need couple of days rest.

I'm not sure, but by the way you describe, and the other details you mention in an other post (where you mention that it was a good ride speedwize), I would bet that your slowdown was a consequence of acidosis. You probably went above your lactate threshold for a while.

If it is the case, then it was a good workout after all.

In fact, you should plan to systematically do it on purpose. At least once a week. You push hard for 10 to 20 minutes for example, then when you feel that your legs don't response anymore, you go slow for few minutes and then you go hard again.

To make it more interesting, try to find a coarse, a loop, a fixed distance. Me, I have a place where I can ride a 5k loop. I do my intervals there.

That way, you can measure the improvement weeks after weeks

Cheers🙂

This has happened to me a few times, usually after taking a few days off the bike after a few really tough rides. I can often overcome it by going for a medium length ride at an easy speed and high cadence. Usually by the end of that ride or on my ride the next day things are back to normal. Just something to work through. It seems to be part of the natural rhythm.

Yeah, I experience this every time I don't eat enough for the ride. The symptoms you're describing normally mean you've run out of carbohydrates, and your body has switched to aerobic mode (using fats for fuel). Make sure you eat enough carbs before and during the ride to keep the muscles properly fueled.

Did you have a low-carb meal before your ride? Was your ride longer than 1 hour without eating anything during the ride?

MTB -

Diet (quantity of quality calories), rest, and nutrition can go a long way to helping ease the spanked feeling of having worthless pipe-cleaners for legs, been struggling on and off with the same issue all summer since I’ve been trying to come back from straining both of my Achilles tendons (with resulting tendonitis, and bursitis!). The other issue is you cannot make fitness gains 100% continuously in a linear fashion, our bodies have a normal rhythm of making gains, and when we push those “out of sync” or stretch one of these cycles we can enter the no power zone. Basically I’m talking about the other side of periodization. Basically hang in there and pay attention to your body and don’t force it, but don’t feel you must sit home on the couch either. If you have been tracking your resting heart rate this can be helpful for telling you when your body is ready to hit it again. I think you will find that when your “system” tells you it’s a “go” you will feel stronger and faster than you were before.

HR

Hookyrider said:

MTB -

I think you will find that when your “system” tells you it’s a “go” you will feel stronger and faster than you were before.

Got on the bike today in a steady stiff wind (19 km/h). Had a good average for me, 24 km/h over a 1 hour stretch. It felt great everything was back to normal.
Well almost I had adjusted my saddle, but I definitely didn't get it right 🙁 , right side of my right foot got numb part way through, and I had to sit too far back on the saddle to get a better feel on the pedals.

you might want to try EPO. seems to work wonders for those skinny guys ride the big races. :p